Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Tropical Traditions Review and Giveaway! - 9/3

Tropical Traditions Review and Giveaway! - 9/3

Tropical Traditions is America’s source for coconut oil. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is hand crafted in small batches by family producers, and it is the highest quality coconut oil they offer. You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil?

I used my coconut oil (Tropical Traditions provided me with a sample, so I can do this review, but the opinions in this review are my own.) to fry some delicious breaded mushrooms.

This is what the coconut oil looks like when you get it. At room temperature, the oil is hardened into a solid, waxy looking substance. Pretty cool, because unless you have melted it, you can't spill it. This is great for someone like me. It smells totally fabulous. Like the best coconut smell you can imagine!

To be honest, I was kind of afraid to fry my breaded mushrooms in this. I really didn't want my breaded mushrooms to taste like the coconut oil smelled. But, more on the results of that later.

To use the coconut oil for frying, first you need to melt it. You can use a double boiler, or just place it on the stove in a pan full of water, like this:

I'm pretty sure that coconut oil has a much lower smoke point than other oils I'm used to using, as it melted and was ready to pour into my fry really quickly (about five minutes). When it's melted, it turns into a completely clear liquid. I'd say that it must be really clarified, as it almost looked like water. This is what it looked like:

I poured it into the fryer and let the oil warm up to frying temp. I have to say, it smelled fantastic. WAY better than what it usually smells like when I'm frying stuff. The coconut oil did not smell heavy and oily, it smell clean and fruity, like maybe I was frying pina coladas. Although, my family was pretty scared that the breaded mushrooms were going to TASTE like fried pina coladas at this point. The breaded mushrooms fried up fast and look delicious:

We all took one and took an experimental bite. Here's what the general consensus was. Neither me or Dad could tell the difference in taste; although I did think that the heavy oily taste that accompanies most fried foods was absent. It seemed to me to be much lighter and crispier. Mom and Hubby both said they very faintly tasted a light sweetness, but that it in no way tasted like coconut oil smelled.

End result? My fam loved it! Tasted great, and no weird "I just fried" smell in my house the next day! It smelled like ripe coconuts for a couple hours, than nothing. Another thing you should know about the coconut oil, it DOES re-solidify in the fryer after it cools down. So, pour it out when it's still a little warm, or just enjoy the fact that now you can't spill your fryer (I've done this, highly uncool.).

What else can you do with coconut oil? You can try some of these suggestions:

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this
product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so
chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or
sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

6 comments:

Not sure if I followed correctly. I don't know what a "Linky" is. But I followed the one below for networked blogs. I am not familiar with all the other entries. Sorry, I am just an old woman learning how to use the computer. I love you site though.

It is a bit more expensive than vegetable oil; however, I think that the benefits outway the price, and they have super deals on their site all the time, which they will send you when you sign up for their newsletter.